Lawrence City Commission to consider study to evaluate trash rates; rates expected to change

Lawrence city commissioners will soon decide whether to hire a consultant to study the city’s solid waste service and the collection rates charged to Lawrence residents.

Currently, residential customers pay $18.80 per month for trash and recycling collection, and commercial customers pay a wide range of fees based on the size of container and number of pickups per month, according to the city’s fee schedule. However, it has been several years since the last cost analysis, and Solid Waste Division Manager Kathy Richardson said the city doesn’t know at this point whether the current rates are covering the city’s costs.

“The current trash rates were developed years ago based on cost of service, and that includes everything from the trucks and personnel to the containers and so forth, including the landfill fee,” Richardson said. “So there are a lot of different components that go into that.”